"It is estimated that 50-80% of the world's population has HSV-1 or oral herpes. Because areas of third world countries are so underdeveloped and tend to be crowded, 100% of the children who live there become infected with the virus by age five. In the United States, many of the 100 million people who have HSV-1 acquired the virus during childhood as well. Also in the United States, 1 in 5 adults have HSV-2 or genital herpes. At least 45 million people ages 12 and older have had a genital infection caused by HSV-1 or HSV-2 in their lifetime."

Adi_: Frankly, I doubt that you should be worried about contacting it. You may have it already for all you know. Just make-out with people you trust to be basically nice, clean people. We can't go through life being too worried about such things, in my opinion.

Your post and this thread about planks encouraged me once again to do some Google surfing to find out if the "experts" feel planks are worth the effort.

Here are a few of the many sites I visited where I tried to get some information to help me decide if they are worth the time and effort. I have no vested interest in arguing one way or the other; I just have felt for a long time that they were too time-consuming for no more results than I thought they produced. However, I am leaning toward believing that done properly, doing planks could be a worth-while exercise.

Since I find them too mentally taxing, I prefer doing hanging abs; but I am not arguing that hanging abs are a better exercise than doing planks. I am not even arguing that either one of them is better than doing other sort of exercises to get more muscular abs.

However, I found information such as the following interesting in terms of what some professionals stated about how doing planks can be beneficial:

True. Even this study suggests that drinking a reasonable amount of coffee is NOT harmful.

On the other other hand, we all have 100% mortality risk, so may as well go out enjoying a good cuppa joe.

I agree that most of us coffee drinkers should continue to enjoy our "cuppa Joe." But probably, as with drinking beer and wine, and as with eating foods we like, all things in moderation.

I think the study is presenting the possibility that drinking too much coffee daily will have an accumulating negative health effect, in the same way that daily consuming too much alcohol or smoking heavily will take their toll as we age.

Since I have a home gym, so to speak, I shall share this tidbit. {I have had several chuckles reading through this thread again, so I hope others will continue to add to it.}

I know I need to drink plenty of water daily. Occasionally, I basically forget and drink a lot of coffee and maybe a few beers. Today, after drinking a small pot of coffee, I got in an early morning 60+ minute walk. Then I hit the heavy bag for 30 minutes and lifted light weights for 30+ minutes.

Then, I went up stairs and ate some fruit, drank another small pot of coffee, and played on the computer. I decided to go down to the dungeon to spin and then to do some hanging abs. I still had not drunk any water. When I was about done with my 10-minute hanging-ab routine, I suddenly got a rather pronounced cramp in my abs. I even had trouble getting my arms out of the ab sleeves. I almost fell off the two step stool I use to climb up to the sleeves. I thrust my stomach out as far as I could and made a sound similar to a cross between a frog singing and a hog yelping. I made it to the downstairs BR where I keep a water glass just for such an emergency.

I chugged down a glass of water and headed for the stairway. Then really severe cramps hit both my abs and the bottom of my right foot. I began making those ungodly sounds again {to which my wife hurried down the stairs, wondering if I had suffered a heart-attack or worse}. I could barely make it to the BR to drink more water. I downed two more full glasses, while a cramp developed in my right hand and forearm.

Yes, I'm at a healthy weight now. 5'2", 43 years old and 110 down from 150. What I meant was, eating the same way as in not worrying too much about sugar and carbs. I don't know much about maintenance yet, and wasn't sure if I needed to be super careful now what I ate.

Go for it! You have done a marvelous job, so trust your instincts and make adjustments when necessary.

Back when my HRM worked and I also would peruse my spinning bike module, the HRM gave me 90% calorie burn compared to what the bike module gave. In each case, I entered the called-for information, including things like age, land elevation, whatever.

After trying to research what on-line calculators suggested (guestimations all) concerning calories burned spinning, I decided that I would use 90% of the Air Dyne Evolution's suggested calorie burn.

{P. S.: There was nothing particularly "scientific" about my conclusion. But, then, most calculations for calories burned through doing various physical activities are usually guestimations, anyway.}

I've been maintaining my weight now for a little over three years. I've been eating roughly 2,200-2,400/day. I lost weight through calorie counting, and haven't been able to shake the habit since. Some days I track, other times I keep estimates in my head. But there has never been a day in which I didn't track calories at all. I feel like I can't keep this up forever...thoughts?

Kudos on maintaining your weight that long.

I was maintaining for close to 4 years, got off during the last holiday season, quit counting and logging calories in--calories out, and consequently have not lost the 12 pounds I gained from November through February. I simply have to get back to accurate calorie counting if I want to return to my maintenance weight that I worked so hard to stay at.

{Not counting and not logging calories are the worse things for me as far as maintaining and/or losing. For others, counting and logging can increasingly cause mental anguish.}

My advice would be for you to trust your own instincts and just not log or count calories at all and see how you feel about that. Deliberately try not to think about the calories in anything you eat or drink.

My opinion (that and $1 might get you a cup of coffee): Not all "fast food" is bad. Yes, items like greasy burgers with fries and high-calorie ice cream drinks might be "bad"; however, fast food restaurants do sell several items that can fit into one's overall dietary plan.

I am one pound from my goal, so I guess I need to start transitiong to maintenance. My questions is... I lost 40 pounds not over worrying about sugar or carbs. I do cardi 5 days a weeks for 30 minutes and light weights 3 times. Can I eat the same way I lost to maintain, or do I need to rethink my entire plan?

First, Kudos to you for losing the weight! Well done!

Second, I don't really see how you could "eat the same way" to maintain. If you lost the weight eating less and exercising, wouldn't you continue to lose if you ate the same way?

I would think that once you lose the last pound to reach your goal, you would increase your calorie consumption. {I am assuming that you are at a healthy weight, since occasionally people post on Maintenance, I compliment them, and then some other CC poster rips me a new one because I did not do a background check.}

Maybe you could increase your calorie consumption 100 calories daily to see if you remain in maintenance after you lose the last pound. If you continue to lose, maybe you could up it to 200, etc until you get the maintenance balance you want.

I certainly think it's possible about those dastardly fish being dastardly. On "Naked and Afraid" I saw a woman catch a fish using her muff. So there are a lot of possibilities about the interaction between one's privates and things in the water.

If a person wants to guarantee that spinning is a cardio activity that causes weight loss, turn it into a High-Intensity regimen. For those who have the mental strength needed to accompany the physical exertion, set up intervals of low-high-moderate intensity speeds. A good 20-30 minute daily workout (well, 4-6 times a week) of HI spinning as part of a regular exercise regimen will, along with healthy eating, guarantee weight loss.

Yes, doing biking is enough for weight loss. Doing a lot of biking could cause a lot of weight loss. Of course, how many calories you consume has to figure in, too. I lost significate weight by only doing things like fast walking and spinning. Then I included strength-training into my exercise regimen after I had lost my weight.